How to create highlights cover in instagram


How to Make Clicky Instagram Highlight Covers [40 Free Covers]

What is an Instagram highlight cover?

How to create an Instagram highlight cover

8 tips for clicky Instagram highlight covers

Instagram highlight cover templates

Having an orderly, beautiful and consistent set of Instagram highlight covers looks cool, sure — but it’s also a great opportunity to show off your branding, color palette and sense of style to your followers. And, aesthetic highlight covers encourage profile visitors to click and view the Stories that contain all the important information you’ve essentially pinned to the top of your profile.

You can design personalized highlight covers from scratch or use a graphic design tool or photo editing app for extra support. Read this post and you’ll be, well, covered.

Download your free pack of 40 customizable Instagram Stories Highlights Icons now. Optimize your profile and set your brand apart from the competition.

What is an Instagram highlight cover?

First: What is an Instagram highlight?

An Instagram highlight is a collection of Instagram Stories that a user has saved under a certain category. Instagram Stories can only be viewed for 24 hours, but adding a Story to a highlight gives it a permanent spot on your profile.

An Instagram highlight cover is a photo or graphic that appears above the highlight name on your profile page. It’s like a book cover, but for your highlight.

In the example below (indicated by the blue rectangle), a fashion brand uses highlights to feature important information—a sizing guide, care info, new launches, etc.—and each highlight has a cute floral highlight cover.

Source: Instagram

Highlight covers aren’t essential, but they do provide your profile with a polished look—and they make a great first impression for people visiting your Instagram page for the first time.

Here’s how to make them.

How to create an Instagram highlight cover

To create an Instagram highlight cover, first you need to have an Instagram highlight. Follow these step-by-step instructions to create a highlight (and if you already have a highlight set up, skip this part).

How to create an Instagram highlight

1. Open your Instagram account in the mobile app and click “New” in the highlights section below your bio.

2. Scroll through your Story archive and select the Stories you want to include in your highlight. Then, tap Next in the top right corner of the screen.

3. Type in the name of your highlight.

4. Optional: Tap Edit cover to edit the default cover picked by Instagram (a frame from the first Story in your collection). You can also do this later, once your highlight is live — we cover the process in detail below.

5. Click Add in the top right cover of the screen.

That’s it! Your highlight will show up on your profile page.

How to create a personalized Instagram highlight cover

Once you create an Instagram highlight, the cover will generate automatically — but personalizing your Instagram highlight covers is way more fun. It’s also a great way to showcase your branding and add an individual touch to your profile.

We’ve put together 40 Instagram Story highlight cover icons that are free to download and easy to customize. Or, you can make your own.

You can create circular Instagram highlight covers using any design app or software. We’re fans of Canva (and psst… Canva is now integrated with Hootsuite, making it simple to design beautiful graphics for free). Here’s how to create a highlight cover using Canva.

1. Go to canva.com. Canva is free to use, but you do need to create an account to log in.

2. You can design your own Instagram highlight from scratch using any circular image, or personalize a Canva template (that’s what we’ll be doing in this example). Type “Instagram Story highlight” into the search bar to find thousands of templates.

3. Select your favorite template.

4. Once you’ve selected your template, you can edit the text…

5. …and the colours…

6. …and even add graphics, if you want to. Canva has a ton of free images and designs to choose from.

7. When you’re happy with the design, click “Share” at the top right of your screen to download the image.

8. Choose Download from the drop-down menu. Download the image as a PNG or JPG. If the template you’ve chosen has several pages, only download the pages that you want—in this case, we’re only saving page 2.

9. Save the image to your phone’s camera roll. Now, it’s time to use the image as a highlight cover.

How to change your Instagram highlight cover

To change your Instagram highlight cover to a personalized image, follow these simple steps:

1. Open the highlight from your Instagram profile.

2. Tap More in the bottom right corner.

3. Tap Edit highlight. Then, tap Edit cover, near the top of your screen.

5. To choose an image from your camera roll, tap the photo icon near the bottom of your screen.

6. Choose the new highlight cover from your camera roll. Then, tap Done.

That’s it! Your brand new highlight cover is live.

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8 tips for clicky Instagram highlight covers

Still searching for inspiration? Here are some great examples of engaging Instagram Story highlight covers and tips on how to get it right.

1. Keep it simple

Instagram Story highlight covers are small—so small, in fact, that you’ll want to avoid crowding that precious little circle with too much text or overcomplicated images.

Source: Instagram

Keeping your covers basic and clean is ideal. Even simple color-blocked highlight covers (like the ones used by the artist above) are super effective: they’re not too busy, and pleasing to look at.

2. Be consistent

Your IG highlight covers don’t need to be identical, but ideally, they’ll match: consider picking a certain color, theme or pattern to follow when making your covers.


Source: Instagram

This restaurant uses a red circular frame on all of their highlight covers, creating a consistent look even though the photos within each frame are all different. It’s a small detail, but it gives the covers a cohesive look.

3. Be creative

Highlight covers are an opportunity to show off your creativity as a brand. Think about how you can infuse your brand into your highlight covers as much as possible.


Source:
Instagram

For example, paint brand Farrow and Ball has highlight covers that look like paint mixing together. It’s a very unique choice that effectively communicates something about the brand (mainly, that they sell paint).

4. Use a branded color palette

Another way you can incorporate your brand into your highlight covers is by using your brand’s colors in the designs. Think of a cover like a label for your business: audiences should be able to look at it and immediately know that it belongs to you.


Source: Instagram

This cosmetic brand, for example, has a very consistent color palette across their products and on their Instagram. The highlight covers are no exception: they take on the same trendy pinky-brown hues as the rest of the profile.

5. Use icons

Because there’s not much real estate on a highlight cover, using pictures that symbolize words and ideas—or icons—can be an excellent tool for communicating simple information.


Source: Instagram

Crate and Barrel’s Instagram highlight covers are quite basic, but the icons are effective when it comes to symbolizing ideas (and they’re pretty cute, too). Icons are where editing apps like Canva really shine—there’s thousands of symbols and simple illustrations built right in.

6. Show off your products

If you use Instagram for business, your highlight covers work as a tiny marketing tactic. Instead of having to scroll through your feed to see all of your merchandise, Instagram users can get a quick look at your products via the highlight covers.


Source: Instagram

This slow fashion brand uses highlights to feature specific products, so curious shoppers can easily research the design and fit of different pieces of clothing.

7. Highlight what matters most

Don’t make the high school mistake of highlighting everything. Highlights should be used to showcase only the most important and useful information to your audience. It’s good to be picky about which Stories you highlight (and as a bonus, being selective means you won’t have to design a ton of highlight covers).


Source: Instagram

Pottery Barn Kids keeps their highlights simple and broad: topics like “Nursery,” “Toddler,” and “Bedroom” make it easy for Instagram users to find the inspo they’re looking for.

8. Don’t be afraid to experiment

Highlight covers often symbolize the highlighted category in a very literal way, but if you’ve got an idea, try it—one of the best things about highlight covers is that they can be edited or switched out if you change your mind. Let your imagination go wild.


Source: Instagram

It’s not surprising that this graphic designer has very bold, distinctive highlight covers—they fit perfectly with his brand. For example, it would be the typical choice to go with Twitter’s logo for the “Tweets” section, but this designer created his own personal version of that iconic bird.

Instagram highlight cover templates

Now that you know how to create Instagram highlights and add custom covers to them, download this bundle of 40 free customizable designs and take the look of your Instagram profile to the next level.

Download your free pack of 40 customizable Instagram Stories Highlights Icons now. Optimize your profile and set your brand apart from the competition.

Easily manage all of your Instagram marketing with Hootsuite. From a single dashboard, you can schedule and publish posts directly to Instagram, engage your audience, measure performance and run all your other social media profiles. Try it free today.

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How to Make Aesthetically Pleasing Instagram Highlight Covers — Homemade Social

Instagram

Written By Becca Booker

With the ever-changing Instagram algorithm, it is becoming increasingly important to utilize IG stories to create consistent engagement & show authenticity! IG stories are a great way to interact with your followers & give them a behind-the-scenes of what you’re all about.

A great way to increase the traffic to your page is to save your Instagram stories to highlights so followers can refer back to them for information and entertainment. A big aspect of a cohesive theme and establishing a solid Instagram aesthetic, which we talked about in our recent blog post, is creating highlight covers. These are easy to create & make highlights more user friendly, while incorporating brand colors and themes.

A great website to use is Canva (it also has an app, but it’s not as easy to use). This site offers a ton of FREE templates & icons to use on highlight covers. You can also upload your own photos to turn into Highlight covers. The possibilities are endless! This is the perfect opportunity to be creative & try your hand at graphic design.

Have a few Instagram highlight ideas in mind? Watch below for an easy step-by-step tutorial on how to Instagram highlight covers & be sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel. Enjoy!

Brief Outline to Creating IG Story Highlight Covers:

  1. Go to canva.com

  2. Once on the homepage, search Instagram Story

  3. Choose any template

  4. Clear out any text or images on the graphic

  5. Add an icon, “illustration” or text. Play around with fonts to match your brand and aesthetic!

  6. Type the Cover category

  7. Duplicate that graphic for the # of covers you’ll need

  8. Customize each cover’s icon and title to correspond with your category. Don’t be afraid to switch up the background color either! Just make sure they align with your brand and Instagram content.

  9. Download templates as a png file

  10. Go to the Instagram app and click on a story highlight

  11. Click More at the bottom of the story and choose Edit Highlight

  12. From there you can edit the cover with your new designs!

Here are some other social media-related blog posts:

  • How to Use Instagram Stories Highlights to Wow Your Customers

  • 3 Tips To Increase Your Engagement On Instagram Stories

  • Our 3 Favorite Instagram Story Apps

  • 4 Tips For Service-Based Businesses To Improve Their Social Media Presence

  • 6 Tools Every Content Creator Needs Under $25

  • How To Stay Up-To-Date With Social Media Trends

We hope you enjoyed this blog post and found it insightful! Making your Instagram highlight ideas into a reality through on-brand highlight covers can do wonders for helping you establish a cohesive theme and Instagram aesthetic overall! Be sure to follow along on Instagram at @homemadesocial_ and let us know if you have any questions! You can also subscribe to our weekly newsletter for social media tips & tricks & to stay up-to-date on the latest in the digital industry!

Becca Booker http://www. homemadesocial.com

How to create your own Instagram Moments

Instagram has become one of the leading platforms for marketing, business and brand awareness. For this reason, every serious business, influencer, and celebrity has their Instagram highlights. All your best Instagram stories combined into your best Instagram moments.

If you want to know how to create your own Instagram Moments, you've come to the right place. Keep reading to learn all about the best ways to make your own Instagram covers.

Instagram highlights 101

Instagram highlights are easy to make. All you need is the Instagram app for Android or iOS. Follow the links even if you already have the app, because you should get the latest app updates.

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The next thing you need is Instagram stories. If you've just created an Instagram story, here's how to add your highlights to it:

  1. Step 1 Log in to Instagram and click on your story.
  2. Step 2 Select Select in the lower right corner of the screen.
  3. Step 3 Select the Highlight group you want to add this story to.
  4. Step 4 Alternatively, you can select New to create a new Highlight group. Name it and click "Add" to add your story to the last "Highlights" group.

Note that this has nothing to do with IG groups. In this context, a group refers to a selection of highlights (you can create many of these on your profile).

An alternative method for making Instagram Highlights

Here is an alternative method you can use to make Instagram Highlights. This is probably more efficient because it allows you to add multiple stories to the selection at the same time. Follow these steps:

  1. Step 1 Launch the Instagram app on your device.
  2. Step 2 Click on your profile (the icon in the lower right corner of the screen).
  3. Step 3 Select the Create option (plus sign).
  4. Step 4 Select the stories you want to appear in the selection (New Selection window).
  5. Step 5 Click the Next button in the upper right corner of the screen.
  6. Step 6 Rename the selection as you wish, select a selection skin, and click Done to confirm.

How to Create a Highlight Instagram Cover

If you don't have an Instagram Highlight Cover, you should get one. You can use a simple image as your cover image, but that won't help if you want to use Instagram professionally. If you use Instagram for any kind of advertising, be sure to use the cover for that purpose.

You don't have to be a digital designer, you can use many free apps that even have free templates. Of course, knowing Photoshop won't hurt you.

If you have a PS on your computer and know how to use it, you can easily create your own Instagram cover. Search the web for a free package for the best Instagram stories and download the icon you want in Photoshop. Place the icon in the middle of the canvas and right click on the layer to rasterize it.

You can then change colors, layout, play with brushes, and image composition. it's entirely up to you and your Photoshop skills.

Use third-party applications

If you're not a Photoshop wizard, don't worry. Some great third-party apps and sites can help you create your Instagram highlights cover. Let's take a look at the instructions for some of the best apps you can use.

Nad

Nad is one of the most popular free tools that you can use to promote your Instagram profile. This app is available for free on iOS and Android devices. Download it from the link above and start using it for your Instagram highlight covers:

  1. Step 1 Find the icon pack online and download it to your phone or tablet.
  2. Step 2 Run on your device.
  3. Step 3 Click on the image if you want to import a cover, or choose from a wide range of covers (see the Layout Collections section).
  4. Step 4 When you choose a case, you need to adjust its size. Select the "Layers" menu and select the background layer. Finally, click on the Instagram Story cover dimensions.
  5. Step 5 Feel free to experiment with cover colors. Select Background and use the roller to change the color. If you have a brand, adjust the brightness to resemble it.
  6. Step 6 You can then go back to the Layers menu and delete everything you don't need (any extra words, etc.).
  7. Step 7 When your background is ready, click on the image and select an icon from the device gallery.
  8. Step 8 Center the icon (feel free to resize it by pinching it with two fingers). You can add your icon to your favorites to make it easier to find it next time.
  9. Step 9 Alternatively, you can use text instead of icons. Choose "Text" instead of "Image" and choose a font.
  10. Step 10 When you're done, confirm with a yellow tick: click "Export" and then "Save". Your new Instagram Highlights cover will be saved to your device's gallery.

Canva

Canva is a great alternative to Over. It is a free tool with the same function as Over. Follow these steps to create Instagram Highlight Covers with Canva:

  1. Step 1Visit canva.com and register an account (free).
  2. Step 2 Click Create Design and select custom sizes.
  3. Step 3 Set the dimensions to 1080 (width) by 1920 (height) to fit the Instagram highlights.
  4. Step 4 Upload your icon from your computer. You can easily find a lot of images online if you don't have one prepared.
  5. Step 5 Select Upload image or video. Select an icon image.
  6. Step 6 Choose a background (there is a wide selection of Canva images you can use or use natural colors).
  7. Step 7 Click Add New Page to copy the cover. You can upload new icons and create multiple covers.
  8. Step 8 When you're done, click Publish and then Upload. Select the file type and confirm by clicking Upload.

These files will be archived. Be sure to unzip them and send them to your mobile gallery so you can use them as Instagram covers. On Instagram, visit the profile page and click on the highlights you want to edit. Select "More", then click "Change Highlight" and finally select "Change Cover". Select an image created in Canva from your gallery and upload it. Click Done to confirm.

Enjoy your Instagram updates

Now you can create your own Instagram moments and covers. If you use IG professionally, this is especially important. Be sure to choose your brand colors and maybe include your brand name on the cover.

If you have any questions or comments, please leave them in the comments section below.

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4 applications where to do ? covers for Instagram highlights

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Contents

  • 1 Cover design for Instagram highlights
  • 2 How to make Instagram highlights
  • 3 Applications for making covers for Instagram highlights
  • profile view is the face that creates the first impression of the company. A potential subscriber visits a brand page and the design of the content directly affects his loyalty.

    Therefore, it is important to observe the style in every detail and not to make a hodgepodge of everything that gets into the camera out of the account. The “Relevant” section on Instagram is one of the important points, the design of which should be approached with responsibility and creativity.

    Instagram highlight cover design

    First of all, the Instagram highlight section is useful for navigating through the account's posts. It helps to organize the pinned stories in the right order. So that subscribers immediately understand what each collection is about, give it a title and choose a suitable cover.

    The harmonious design of Instagram not only attracts attention, but also makes the profile more harmonious and professional.

    First of all, “Relevant” is the section of the Instagram account where already published stories are posted. Many users are accustomed to sharing life moments, impressions and emotions in Instagram Stories.

    An example of a competent design of the "Actual" section.

    But, unfortunately, stories disappear after 24 hours. And I want as many people as possible to see them. And just in this case, Instagram Highlights will help us. Collections of pinned stories are displayed under the header of the bio account.

    How to make Instagram trendy

    For harmonious design, covers are created in the same style and harmonize with the Instagram profile avatar. First you need to determine the dominant colors in the profile.

    Adobe Capture will help you with this. With this application you will define your color scheme.

    To do this, take a screenshot of the profile and upload it to the application. The program will do the rest. Having found out which colors prevail in your Instagram account, start creating a cover.

    Applications where you can create covers for the current Instagram

    We have made a selection of applications in which you can create icons for Instagram Highlights.

    • Canva.

    Canva is the number one app for creating beautiful and vibrant images for Instagram Highlights. Creating a design in this service is a pleasure.

    There are also collections of colorful designs for posters, presentations, stories and other social media formats.

    All the tools are provided here to create a highlight cover, so it's easy to create visually appealing Highlights. How to do it:

    1. Log in to your account in the service or register.
    2. You need to create a personal design with individual sizes or use ready-made templates (we recommend choosing a template for Instagram Stories).
    3. Select a background from the Elements section, or add any image from the Photos section. If you can't find a suitable one, upload your picture through the "Downloads" section.
    4. Open the "Elements" section and search for the desired icon by keywords. For example: "price", "review", "address" will help you choose a schematic image. Position it in the center of the created image.
    5. You can also add any text to the selected background, while changing its font, color, size. Canva's font library offers over 700 font options.
    6. Click the "Download" arrow and save the resulting design in the desired format.
    • App for type.

    Another cool app that helps you create aesthetic and harmonious covers for the latest. The app is available for both iPhone and Android. How to create a cover for Highlights:

    1. Open the application.
    2. Click the "New art" button to create a new art.
    3. Choose the design size.
    4. By clicking the "+" icon, select a picture for the background from the smartphone gallery.
    5. By clicking on the first button in the panel in the form of a sticker, select a sticker to add. Add captions to photos. App for type already contains more than 750 calligraphic signatures for the Actual.
    6. Adjust its size and location.
    7. Save the resulting image to your phone's gallery.

    You can buy new collections of stickers and badges by opening the "Shop" section (located in the form of a small bag). The app frequently updates sticker packs and is a pretty handy way to create a nice caption for your photo.

    • Pinterest.

    Don't want to bother and want an easy way to create a beautiful Instagram cover? This is where Pinterest comes in handy!

    Here are ready-made collections of covers for Instagram for every taste and color. Hundreds of different options: from plain to colorful, with and without inscriptions.


    Learn more